1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a vehicle parking aid and signaling device which assists in parking a vehicle in a desired position within a confined parking area, e.g. a garage. More particularly, the invention is directed to a simple, completely self-contained, portable vehicle parking assistance device that can be used in any parking location to indicate when a vehicle has reached a selected point and should be stopped.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The use of vehicle parking assistance devices is well known in the prior art, and a great number of contrivances have been developed for this purpose. However, all of the known devices of this character have drawbacks which make them impractical and/or of limited application. For instance, some of the prior art devices require a large number of parts and thus are expensive to manufacture as well as difficult to assemble, install and maintain. Others must be mounted to a fixed structure, such as a wall, and thus lack portability and are incapable of easy movement to different locations. Still others fail to give a foolproof indication of vehicle position and, hence, lack effectiveness.
Attention is directed to the following United States patents as examples of parking assistance devices analogous to the subject matter of the instant invention:
______________________________________ 2,296,311 Sept. 22, 1942 Schneider 2,956,262 Oct. 11, 1960 Bahr 3,668,626 June 6, 1972 Follett 3,820,065 June 25, 1974 Koplewicz et al. 3,922,638 Nov. 25, 1975 Mendelsohn 4,145,681 March 20, 1979 Bubnich et al. 4,873,509 Oct. 10, 1989 Simi 4,965,571 Oct. 23, 1990 Jones ______________________________________
The most pertinent of those patents listed above are believed to be the Mendelsohn and Simi patents, and of these, Mendelsohn is seen to be the most closely related. Similarly to the present invention, Mendelsohn's device employs a large container or tray surrounding the functional components of the indicator assembly of his parking assistance device for containing a ballast. However, unlike the present invention, the ballast utilized by Mendelsohn is concrete which must be mixed separately by the user and poured into the tray where it hardens and thereafter becomes a permanent part of the structure, thereby greatly increasing the weight of the entire device and thus severely limiting the ability to transport the device to different locations when desired. In addition, the Mendelsohn device involves a switch and mechanical construction that includes numerous parts and requires a specialized compartment to house the several switch parts. Also, the light bulb employed as a visual indicator in Mendelsohn is mounted at a remote position from the other components of the device. As a result, the Mendelsohn device is not a self-contained construction that is totally portable as a single unit. Furthermore, in order to utilize the Mendelsohn device with a vehicle having a bumper at a relatively great distance above the surface upon which the vehicle travels, it is necessary to elevate the ballast tray above such surface by means of separately attached legs. Such makes the device top heavy and susceptible to tipping over when engaged by the vehicle, thus rendering it inoperative.
The device disclosed in the Simi patent likewise fails to possess many of the features of the present invention. For example, in Simi there is no indicator in the view of the driver of the vehicle and only a single power-dependent audio signal is used to alert the driver of the position of the vehicle. If the audio signal fails, the driver will not be alerted to stop the vehicle.
It is clear from the Mendelsohn and Simi patents just discussed, as well as the other patents listed above, that prior vehicle parking assistance devices either have been complex mechanically and/or electrically, or have required mounting on a fixed structure, such as a wall, all of which makes them impractical for the changing parking position requirements commonly encountered in home garage situations or other parking locations. Also, many such devices provide only a single power-source-dependent mode of warning a driver of the position of a vehicle and, hence, are totally ineffective when that mode fails to function.